It Never Rains in California
by gryffingirl77
Summary: Chapter 4 is Up! When a New York Judge’s daughter goes missing in Disneyland the New York Missing Persons Department is put on the case and Jack, Sam and Martin are sent to LA to lead the investigation.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This is my first attempt at a _Without A Trace_ fanfic! Please review and tell me what you think! BTW, this is Martin/Sam.

**Summary:** When a New York Judge's daughter goes missing in Disneyland, the New York Missing Person's Division is put on the case and Jack, Martin and Sam are sent to LA to head the investigation. Was she kidnapped? Does it have something to do with the Judge? It's up to our favorite FBI agents to find the answers.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Without a Trace_ or any of the characters.

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It was a hot and sunny summer day in Southern California. Judge Amelia Roenstein and her husband of twenty years, Jacob, had taken their daughter, four year old Natalie, to Disneyland for the first time.

It was hot, almost unbearably so, and crowded. It was the weekend before Independence Day and the park was packed with people. They spent the long, hot day standing in long lines and going on rides. They watched a parade and Natalie got an autograph book and they spent hours spotting characters and getting their autographs. Natalie's parents had taken a hundred photographs, or more, of Natalie with Mickey, Natalie on the King Arthur Carousel, Natalie in front of the Snow White statues.

Natalie was a sweet and happy four year old with long curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She had worn her favorite outfit that day, her Ariel shirt with the matching pants and shoes. She had even found an Ariel doll at one of the shops and her mother had bought it for her.

By the time night fell their day was winding down and Natalie was getting tired. They decided to watch the firework display before they left for the night and staked out a spot on Main Street where they would get the best view.

Natalie was starting to get fussy. The long hot day was taking its tool on the girl, and in turn, her parents.

"Do you want to watch the fireworks?" Judge Roenstein asked her daughter, who was clutching her Ariel doll.

Natalie nodded her head. "Yes, Mommy. I wanna watch the fireworks," she said tiredly, leaning against her head against her mother's leg.

"C'mon Amelia, let's just go. She's tired and it's been a long day. She doesn't care about the fireworks," Jacob Roenstein said.

"It's only another fifteen minutes," Judge Roenstein said. "She'll love them."

Jacob shook his head and sighed exasperatedly. "Are we staying for Natalie or for you?" he asked.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the Judge asked as the lights dimmed for better viewing of the fireworks.

"You know exactly what it means. Everything has to be your way. If you want to stay for fireworks, then we'll stay for fireworks no matter what," Jacob said.

"That's not fair. This is Natalie's first trip and you know she loves fireworks. We'll leave as soon as they're over," the Judge snapped. She finished unwrapping the sucker that she had just bought Natalie. "Here, sweetie, here's your sucker," she said, looking down.

Natalie was gone.

"Where's Natalie, where did she go?" the Judge asked and she and her husband looked around the dark, crowded streets. Everyone was looking up at the fireworks exploding in the skies above them.

"Natalie!" they called, certain that she had just seen something interesting and had wandered off.

They looked around frantically, asking the people around them if they had seen the little girl. The people behind them, focused on watching the fireworks looked annoyed and just shook their heads. The people next to them didn't seem to speak any English and just looked at them blankly.

"Natalie!" the Judge screamed, panicked. "Natalie!"

But there was no sign of the little girl.

Just like that she had vanished.

Without a trace.

((please review, thanks!!))


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Without a Trace_ or any of the characters.

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2 Hours Missing-

Samantha Spade walked into the room and looked around. She had just gotten a '911' page from her boss, Jack Malone, and had hurried straight in. It was almost 3 am and she had been sound asleep when her pager went off. She sighed heavily and took a sip of the nasty instant coffee that had been the only thing she had time for before she hurried in to the office.

Jack Malone was standing next to a large whiteboard. He was looking through some papers, his brow furrowed with thought. He looked as tired as Sam felt. Jack glanced up, saw Sam and gave her a little half smile before turning back to the papers.

Martin Fitzgerald was already seated, an open notebook in front of him. He was tapping a pen against the table and staring into space. He looked over and gave Sam a warm smile which she returned.

She slid into a chair next to him and brushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "Where are Danny and Viv?" she whispered.

Martin shrugged. "I haven't seen them," he replied.

"Not like them to be late," Sam commented. Martin opened his mouth to reply when Vivian and Danny walked in.

Danny Taylor looked tired and rumpled, his black hair poking up and he needed a shave. He trudged in and took a seat. Vivian Johnson managed a smile as she took her seat. She looked as tired as the rest of them. They were used it, though. The crazy hours were all part of the job. They were on call 24/7 and middle of the night calls were nothing new.

Jack looked up. He shut the folder he was holding with a snap.

"We're all here," he said. "Let's start." Jack opened up the folder again and pulled out a glossy 8x10 photo of a little blonde girl and stuck it to the whiteboard next to where he had already written _Natalie Amelia Roenstein, age 4. Case# 684312._

"This is the case," Jack said, like he began every investigation. "Natalie Roenstein was visiting Disneyland with her parents. They were just about to watch the fireworks display when they looked down and she was gone. The park was searched, there's no sign of the girl."

Martin and Sam exchanged a look. Disneyland? That was Southern California.

"She's been missing just two hours, we need to get on this one fast," Jack said.

"Um, Jack, Disneyland is in Southern California," Martin pointed out, looking confused.

"Yes, I know. Apparently you don't recognize the name. Natalie Roenstein is the daughter of Amelia and Jacob Roenstein," Jack said.

Sam raised her eyebrows. "The Judge?" she asked.

"She's the one that really cracks down on drug dealers," Vivian stated thoughtfully.

"Yes," Jack replied. "That's the one."

"But if she's missing in California why aren't the California Agents on the case?" Danny asked, the first thing he had said since arriving. He wasn't sure what they were doing there.

"Judge Roenstein called in to the higher-ups. Seems she's convinced that the girl was kidnapped and that it has something to do with one of her cases. The California agents have started the investigation, but she wants us on it."

There was a silence in which the agents exchanged another look.

"Is there any indication that it's something to do with her job?" Vivian asked.

"Not yet, but she's only been missing two hours. Martin, Sam, you're going to California with me," Jack said.

"What about Danny and Viv?" Sam asked.

"They're staying and heading the case here," Jack replied.

"Okay," Sam said and closed the little notebook that she had been scribbling notes in. She stood up.

"We leave in a forty-five minutes. Can you be ready?" asked Jack.

Sam and Martin nodded. Due to the nature of their job they never knew when they would have to leave on a moment's notice, or have to pull an all-nighter at the office, so all of the agents kept extra clothes and necessities in lockers at the office.

"Be back here as soon as you can and we'll get to the airport," Jack said. He dismissed them and they all went their separate directions.

Xxx

Sam went directly to her locker. She spun the combination and the door swung open. She pulled out a duffel bag which contained spare clothes, a toothbrush, hairbrush. Her own mini-vacation kit, she thought with a wry smile. But these kinds of trips were anything but fun.

"Going to California, huh?"

Sam turned around and saw Vivian standing there, smiling.

"Yeah, seems that way," Sam replied with a tiny smile.

"Well, have a good flight," Vivian said.

"Thanks," Sam replied, smiling weakly. None of her co-workers knew it, but Sam was deathly afraid of flying. The thought of an almost five hour long flight was nauseating.

Part of the job, she told herself firmly. All part of the job.

Within a half an hour Sam and Martin were standing outside Jack's office and ready to go. They both carried duffel bags and looked as alert as could be expected at three-thirty in the morning.

"At least we can get some sleep on the plane," Martin said as they waited for Jack.

"Right," Sam replied, thinking that she would be more than happy if she could fall asleep and wake up when the whole thing was over.

Martin touched Sam's arm. "We probably won't be back before the Fourth," he said, "But I was going to ask you to go to the concert and fireworks in the Park. I thought we could go out to dinner before."

Sam smiled up at Martin. She was still getting used to this, the "relationship" that she had with Martin. It was all so new and, in her mind, so shaky that she barely dared call it a relationship. She did not have luck when it came to relationships. She dove in head first with out looking to see if there were rocks right under the surface. But things were different with Martin. _He_ was different.

Sam had messed up, big time, when she'd had an affair with Jack. It had ultimately cost Jack his family, though Sam knew better than to blame herself completely. Jack's marriage had been shaky far before Sam came into the picture. But that was over and done with and Sam tried not to look back, tried to move on and look to the future as much as possible.

"That would have been nice," Sam said. "Can I get a rain check?"

"Of course," Martin replied, smiling warmly.

Jack stepped out of the office and Sam and Martin immediately took a step away from each other. They had decided not to let on about their relationship to their co-workers. They weren't embarrassed or ashamed, but they both knew how fast word traveled around the office and they wanted to keep it quiet for as long as possible.

Sam looked at Jack out of the corner of her eye. Ever since his wife had taken their two kids with her to Chicago Jack had been subdued. They had never spoken, not once, about the possibility of a relationship now that he was getting a divorce and they could be together. Sam knew that Jack knew as well as she did that their affair had been a mistake. They had both been lonely and things had gone too far. And everyone had ended up knowing about it, much to Sam's dismay. But, by silent agreement, Sam and Jack had moved on.

Not to mention, Sam thought, now there was Martin…

Sam shook her head slightly to clear her head as Jack led them downstairs to where an agent was waiting to take them to the airport and the chartered plane that would take them to California.

((please review and let me know what you think!))


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:** thank you to drama-freak-csim & tfm for your reviews. To drama-freak, thanks for your nice review, I wasn't going to continue the story because I didn't think anyone was interested!!! But here is another chapter which I've been trying to post for days but couldn't!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Without a Trace or any of its characters.

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**7 Hours Missing-**

"This time change is a pain in the ass," Jack said. "I have to think of everything with two times."

Martin laughed. "Yeah, we'll be getting to California just an hour and a half after we left New York."

The flight was almost over and it had taken Sam over half the flight to relax enough to doze off. The small FBI charter plane would shave and hour and a half off of their flight time and they would arrive in California at five o'clock am.

The little girl had been missing for almost seven hours. Every minute counted and Jack was in constant contact with Danny and Vivian who were going over every recent case that the Judge had. As Danny told Jack, the woman had made more than her share of enemies and they had compiled quite the list of people that she had pissed off. That made each of them, and their families, a possible suspect.

Jack was also in contact with the Agents in California who sounded pretty icy when they found out that Jack and his team was taking over the case. The California agents had found nothing, had no leads.

But Jack wasn't taking that into consideration. Not until his team had done their work.

Martin and Jack had each taken a nap, knowing that once they were in California they wouldn't have a second to lose as the minutes that Natalie Roenstein had been missing ticked away.

As the pilot announced their final descent into LA Martin nudged Sam awake. "We're here," he said.

Sam looked over at him, bleary eyed. She put her chair in its upright position and braved a glance out the window.

They were circling out over the ocean, preparing for their arrival at the airport. From where she sat Sam could see ocean, beach, palm trees, sun and blue skies. She was unimpressed. Save for the palm trees, New York had all the rest only without the hundred plus degree temperatures that were forecasted for Los Angeles the next several days.

"Ever been to California?" Martin asked her.

Sam glanced over at him and shook her head. "Nah, never made it out here," she said and glanced back out the window.

She was suddenly sucked into a memory so vivid that it gave her chills.

_Seventeen years old and ready to take on the world. Samantha Spade was running away from home. Again. She was sick of her life, sick of her mother and her mother's various boyfriends, a new one monthly it seemed. She was sick of her mother not caring what she did or where she went. Sam was tired of all of it and decided that she was going to California. She would become a famous movie star and she would be rich and famous and she would never have to live in a trailer again, never have to put up with her mother's boyfriends looking at her, making her uncomfortable._

_Her mother wouldn't care, probably wouldn't even realize she was gone. She packed her clothes in a backpack and took her savings, less than two hundred dollars she had saved up from her after school job at the five and dime, and decided that she was leaving Wisconsin._

_She remembered her mother and her mother's boyfriend, she didn't even know this one's name, finding her at the bus station buying a one way ticket to LA…_

"Are you okay," Martin asked softly and Sam was jolted out of her reverie.

"Yeah," she said with a half smile. "I'm fine."

She'd never made it to California. And even since she'd had enough money to go there, she had never had the desire to go there. Too many memories.

But here she was in LA, and on a missing person's case. A child, no less, though the girl was definitely too young to have run away. The girl had been kidnapped; there was little doubt about that. If she'd been involved in an accident in a place like Disneyland, they would have found her by now.

But was the kidnapping random or was it the result of Judge Roenstein's many enemies? That's what they were there to find out.

xxx

**9 hours Missing-**

"The Happiest Place on Earth, huh?" Martin stated an hour and a half later as he, Sam and Jack stood outside the main gates, waiting for the Disneyland officials to arrive. Two of the LA FBI agents were with them, not looking very happy, no doubt because their case was being infringed on.

Sam looked around doubtfully at the hoards of screaming children and raised her eyebrows. There were screaming and crying kids accompanied by screaming parents and some parents that looked like they were ready to cry. "That's what they say," she replied dryly and Martin laughed.

They had been briefed about the case by the Los Angeles Missing Persons Division during the hour long drive from Los Angeles International to Anaheim.

The only witness that they had was a Disneyland worker that had been stationed at the exit gates. She had seen a woman with a little girl that might have been Natalie. She had gone home for the evening but they had summoned her back and they were supposed to be meeting with her.

There had been no ransom demand yet, but that didn't rule out the possibility. Most ransoms were demanded in the first twenty-four hours and it had only been nine since the girl had disappeared.

Just then three men in suits walked up with an older woman and two men in identical uniforms close behind them.

"Are you the FBI agents?" one of the men in a suit asked. He was tall and had a shaved head.

"Yes. I'm Special Agent Jack Malone, these are Special Agents Spade and Fitzgerald," Jack said, motioning towards Sam and Martin.

"I'm Dave Richards, head of security," the man said. "This is Mark Weathers, the Disneyland representative, and Bill Petersen my second in command."

Mr. Richards motioned towards the woman, who stepped forward. She was wearing the same brown uniform that all of the ticket takers at the gates wore.

"This is Mrs. Carmen Arteaga, she is the one that thinks she might have seen the little girl. She was working the exit gates. So were Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lloyd, but they didn't see anything. I wasn't sure if you would want to talk to them so I had them come back."

"Thank you," Jack said to Mr. Richards. "Martin, why don't you talk to them. Sam, we'll talk to Mrs. Arteaga. Gentlemen, is there an office we can use?"

"Of course," Mr. Richards replied. He motioned them to follow. The LA agents told Jack that Carmen Arteaga had met with a sketch artist. They handed him a copy of the picture and said they would wait for Judge Roenstein and her husband and meet back up with them after they talked to Mrs. Arteaga.

They went into the park and followed Mr. Richards along Main Street and then they went into one of the shops. They went to a back room and walked up a flight of stairs and were in a small office area. Mr. Richards led Sam, Jack and Carmen Arteaga to an empty office. Jack, Sam and Carmen sat around a small table.

Sam studied the woman. She looked nervous, licking her lips and shifting her gaze from Mr. Richards to Jack and Sam.

"So what exactly did you see, Mrs. Arteaga," Jack asked, his voice calm, soothing.

"Well, I was at my post. I stamp the people's hands as they leave if they're gonna come back," Carmen said in heavily accented English. "It was late, the fireworks had just started, I heard them, but I couldn't see them where I was. A woman came through, dragging a little girl behind her. The girl was crying. She says, "I don't wanna go," and the woman says, "It's okay, stop crying," and I don't think anything about it because kids are always crying when they leave. They never wanna leave."

Jack made notes in his notebook, nodding.

"Was this the little girl?" Sam asked, handing Carmen the photo of Natalie Roenstein.

Carmen Arteaga's eyes filled with tears. "I don't know. _Dio_, I wish I pay more attention!"

"Think carefully, Mrs. Arteaga. What do you remember?" Jack asked.

The woman closed her eyes briefly. "The woman had dark hair. She was wearing a tank top. I remember cause my sister Angelina has the same one. It was purple with a pink butterfly on it."

"How old was this woman?"

"Maybe, your age," Carmen said, motioning towards Sam.

"Can you give me an age?" Jack asked.

"Maybe thirty, not much older than that," Carmen said. "I told the other detectives this, why are you asking again?"

"We're agents from New York, where the child was from," Jack said. He put the picture down in front of Carmen. "This is the woman, correct?"

"Yes, that is the sketch that the detective made," Carmen said, nodding.

Sam studied the picture. It was a younger woman, between twenty-five and thirty-five with long black hair, wearing a tank top. She was pretty, but not gorgeous. She was non-descript, the type of woman that would melt into a crowd, one that you would only notice in passing. She had a Hispanic look, slightly tilted eyes, full lips.

"Is there anything else you can add? Any birthmarks or moles that you noticed but didn't remember last night?" Sam asked. She knew that after some sleep people sometimes remembered things that they hadn't remembered before.

Carmen studied the picture. "I'm sorry, but no. I didn't pay much attention. I probably wouldn't have noticed her at all except for the tank top. We see so many people, so many kids, you just don't pay attention, you know?"

Sam nodded, although she really didn't know. With her job she had come to notice things that most people didn't. She had to.

"Can you remember anything about the girl?" Jack asked.

"She was little, maybe five? She had curly hair, blonde, but that's all I could see. She had her head down, crying. She just kept saying, "I don't wanna go.""

Jack nodded. "Is there anything else, anything at all that might help us?"

Tears streamed down Carmen Arteaga's face. "I shoulda called the police, but I didn't think! Kids, they always cryin' when they leave."

"Was she being rough with the girl?" Sam asked.

Carmen shook her head. "No, no. She was just tugging at her, not hard."

"She never said the girl's name?"

"No, just told her it was going to be okay."

Jack looked over at Samantha who was looking thoughtfully at the woman. Sam shook her head ever so slightly and Jack nodded.

"Well, thank you for your help Mrs. Arteaga. If you think of anything, anything at all that might help us, please call," Jack said, handing her a business card. "You can call any of these numbers."

"O-okay," she said, taking the card and putting it carefully into her purse. "I hope you find that little girl."

"So do we," Jack said and they stood up. Mrs. Arteaga nodded and left, relief plain on her face.

Sam watched her go, thinking.

"So do you think she has anything to do with it?" Jack asked.

Sam shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

"She seems pretty nervous," Jack pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's not about the girl. I bet if you look into it Mrs. Arteaga is not in the United States legally. She's afraid we're going to find out and deport her."

Jack looked admiringly at Samantha. It was exactly what he had been thinking. "I think you're right, but we'll still have Danny look into it."

"Of course," Sam said.

Mr. Richards met them in the hall. He was talking on a small walkie-talkie. "We'll be there shortly," he said and clipped the walkie-talkie back to his belt.

"Judge Roenstein and her husband are here," Mr. Richards said.

"Great. Let's go talk to them," Jack said and he and Sam followed the security guy to meet Natalie Roenstein's parents.

((please please review and tell me what you think!! Thank you!!! ))


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Big hugs and thanks to: drama-freak-csim, lilyleila78 and allygator for your reviews. I really really appreciate them!!! I hope you enjoy my latest chapter! :) (I don't know why some of the reviews disappeared, but I did read them and thank you!!)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Without a Trace_ or its characters.

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**10 hours Missing-**

On the way to meet the Roenstein's Jack's cell phone rang. "Malone."

"Jack, we may have found something," Danny said.

"Good, what is it?" Jack asked, fumbling for his notepad and pen.

"One of the last cases that Judge Roenstein had was a drug dealer, one that was caught by an undercover. The guy was selling to junior high kids. Roenstein threw the book at him, gave him the maximum even though it was his first offense. The kid's in there for at least twenty years. He made some pretty serious threats when the Judge sentenced him. Told her that she'd pay that he'd find a way to ruin her life the way she'd ruined his."

"What have you got so far?" Jack asked.

"Well, the Judge has been receiving threatening letters and e-mails. We tracked the e-mails to an account registered to the dealer, Alfonse Rodriguez. His girlfriend was sending them. Viv's on her way to Riker's to talk to Rodriguez and we just brought the girlfriend in and I'm going to talk to her."

"She's in New York then?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, but get this. She has a sister in Monrovia," Danny said.

"That's not far from Anaheim," Jack said. "Let me know what Vivian finds out. We have to meet with the Judge and her husband now."

"Okay, I'll be in touch."

Jack dropped his phone into his pocket and filled Sam in as they walked.

"Maybe the sister is our mystery woman," Sam said.

"It's a possibility," Jack said. "However I think it's unlikely. The girlfriend was sending the threats from an account registered to the dealer. Unless they're just stupid, I don't think they would do that."

"True," Sam agreed.

They walked along Disneyland's main street and ended up by a little garden area with a statue in the middle. Sam recognized Mickey Mouse and assumed the man with him was Walt Disney. She'd never been big into Disney herself, but judging by the hundreds of people in the park that day she figured she was part of a minority.

Martin met them by the statue.

"They didn't see anything," Martin said, shaking his head. "They don't remember the woman or the little girl, but they said that so many people go through the gates that it's hard to remember."

Jack told him about their conversation with Carmen Arteaga and his conversation with Danny.

Just then the Disneyland rep, Weathers, walked up with a man and woman. Both of them looked distraught and the woman had obviously been crying. Sam recognized her immediately as Judge Roenstein, although the teary-eyed woman was quite different that the hardened and cold Judge that she had seen in court.

Weathers introduced them and Judge Roenstein held Jack's hands, her eyes desperate. "Thank you for coming out here. I know of your department's reputation for recovering missing persons and I wanted you on this case," the Judge said.

"You're welcome, Judge. We'll do everything we can to find Natalie," Jack replied.

"Please, just call me Amelia," she said.

"Now, we want to go over exactly what happened," Jack said, pulling out his notebook again. He had drawn a small timeline like the ones that they used in New York on all of their cases. He had drawn a line in the middle and had written 9:45, fireworks, Natalie gone.

Amelia Roenstein nodded her head and took a deep breath. "We were standing right here," she said, motioning to a spot to the right of the statue. "We had a perfect view of the castle and the fireworks are right above it."

Jack nodded. "What were you doing?"

"We were waiting for the fireworks to start. Jake was standing next to me with Natalie on his shoulders. But then she wanted her sucker so he put her down and I unwrapped it for her," Amelia said. She paused, thinking. "She was getting tired but she said she wanted to stay for the fireworks, so we decided to stay."

"_You_ decided to stay, you mean," Jacob Roenstein injected. He was scowling.

Sam had noticed the tension between them the minute they walked up. A missing child did one of two things to the parents. It brought them closer together or it tore them apart. It seemed that the latter was true of the Roenstein's.

"She said she wanted to see the fireworks," Amelia insisted. The tears dried up and she stared icily at her husband.

"She only said it because you went on and on about wanting to see them," Jacob said.

"She's four years old, Jacob. I doubt that she would be thinking like that."

"Natalie adores you. She would say whatever she could to make you happy and you know it."

Jack, Martin and Sam exchanged a look.

"Okay, we really just need to know the facts right now," Jack said. "Every minute counts and we need to know what happened."

The Roenstein's glared at each other and Amelia took a deep breath. "Of course. I'm sorry," she said.

"So Jacob put Natalie down. Then where was she?" Jack asked.

"She was standing next to me. She leaned her head against my leg for a minute. Jacob and I were….fighting about whether to stay for the fireworks or not. I finished unwrapping a sucker for her and looked down and she was gone. We looked for her, thinking she had just wandered off. But there were hundreds of people crowded around us and the lights were dimmed. She was just gone. No one around us saw anything, they were watching the fireworks," Amelia said and her eyes filled with tears again.

"We contacted security and they searched for her, but there was no sign of her, nothing. No one had seen her, only that woman at the gate, but she wasn't even sure that it was her."

Jack nodded. "What time was it when you noticed she was missing?"

"Nine forty-five, right when the fireworks started."

"How long did you look for her before you contacted security?"

"Fifteen minutes," Jacob replied.

"Fifteen minutes? Exactly?"

"Yes, we went into City Hall right as the fireworks ended. It was ten o'clock," Amelia said. "We told the lady at the desk and she contacted the head of security and they put out an alert to all of the employees."

"How does your missing child alert work?" Jack asked Richards.

"We announce it over the two-way radio system. We describe the child and the area where they went missing."

"Do all the employees have the radios?"

"No. All of the cleaning people do, the workers at the gates do. All of the supervisors have them and they are supposed to alert their people."

"When did the alert go out?"

"Ten ten pm."

Jack nodded and made a note on the timeline. "Did Carmen Arteaga contact you?"

Richards shook his head. "No, she didn't say anything until we showed her a picture, then she said that the little girl she saw might have been Natalie."

"What picture did you show her?"

Amelia pulled a day planner out of her purse and pulled out a wallet size photo that was the same as the 8x10 that Jack had been given.

"What was Natalie wearing?" Jack asked.

"She was wearing her favorite outfit. It was her Ariel outfit. White shirt with green shorts. The shirt has Ariel on the front. She was wearing her Ariel shoes, too. Her hair was down and she was wearing a green headband."

Jack nodded. "Anything else?"

"She was carrying her Ariel doll," Jacob added. "We had just bought it for her."

Sam looked a little puzzled and Martin, noticing, leaned over and whispered, "Ariel, you know, The Little Mermaid?"

Sam cocked an eyebrow at Martin and nodded.

"I have nieces," Martin added and Sam smiled slightly.

"Okay. Mr. and Mrs. Roenstein, we would like to talk to you in private. Can you come to the FBI office today?"

"Of course," Amelia said.

"We'll finish things up here and meet you there in two hours?" asked Jack.

"We will be there. Thanks again for your help," Amelia said with a shaky smile.

Amelia and Jacob Roenstein walked off and Jack turned to Richards. "I think we have just about everything we need from you," Jack said. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"You're welcome," Richards said. "I hope you find that little girl, and if you need anything else let us know."

"Will do," Jack said.

The other men left and Jack turned to Sam and Martin. "What do you think?" he asked.

Martin scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I think that I don't know what to think. Hopefully when we talk to them alone we'll know more."

"They definitely are not a happy couple," Sam added. "Do you think the husband has something to do with it? Revenge maybe?"

Jack shrugged. "At this point anything is possible. We just do not have enough to work with to say right now," he said. "I think we should head to the office and get a look at the security tapes. I know they've been over them, but maybe we'll see something they didn't."

"Sounds good," Sam said and they met back up with the LA agents at the front gate and headed to the LA FBI office.

((please please review and let me know what you think!! ))


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Big thanks to Drama-Freak-CSIM, Briana & Lynn-Summer for their reviews. I appreciate them and am glad you like it!!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Without a Trace_ or any of its characters.

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**12 hours Missing-**

New York-

Special Agent Vivian Johnson sat in a dingy, secured interrogation room at Riker's Federal Prison. She sorted through the papers in front of her and looked up as a guard brought in Alfonse Rodriguez. He was wearing a standard issue orange jumpsuit and had his hands cuffed behind him. The guard motioned him to sit in the chair opposite Vivian, uncuffed him and left.

Vivian studied him. He was young, only twenty, and sentenced to twenty years in prison for drug trafficking and soliciting drugs to a minor. He had sharp, dark eyes and a shaved head with various tattoos across his scalp.

"I'm Special Agent Johnson, FBI," Vivian said.

"What you want?" he said.

"I just have some questions for you," Vivian replied.

"Yeah, what?" Alfonse said snidely.

"Do you know that threatening a Judge is a Federal offense?" Vivian asked.

"Whatcha talking about threatening a Judge? I ain't never threatened no Judge," he spat.

Vivian slid a piece of paper across the table. "Recognize this?"

Alfonse read the paper and his already pallid complexion paled even further. "I don't know nothin about this."

"No? Do you recognize the e-mail address?" Viv asked.

He stared down at the paper, a calculating look in his eyes.

"Before you answer maybe you should think about the fact that lying to a Federal officer is a felony."

The young man clenched his jaw and looked up at Vivian, his dark eyes flashing. "Yeah, I recognize it. It's mine. From before I got stuck in here."

Vivian smiled. "Good answer. Now, what do you know about that e-mail?"

Alfonse slid the paper back across the table at Vivian. "I told you. I don't know nothin about it. I ain't never seen it."

"We know your little girlfriend Rosa sent it, and several more," Vivian said, setting a sheaf of e-mails in front of Alfonse. Vivian read from one of them. " 'You ruined my family, you should burn in hell.'"

Alfonse was shaking his head. "I don't know nothin about 'em," he insisted.

"My partner is talking to Rosa right now. One way or another we'll find out if you told her to send them."

"I told ya, I don't know nothin about it!" Alfonse said, the hard look in his eyes fading and becoming something near panic.

"Judge Roenstein, the one who received all of these nice e-mails, also the Judge that tried your case, it seems her daughter was kidnapped from Disneyland last night."

Alfonse's eyes grew even wider. "I don't know nothin about that. You gotta believe me. If Rosa did something, it wasn't cause of me. I don't know nothin about it! I didn't tell her to kidnap no kid!"

Vivian watched the kid and saw the panic that built in his eyes. There wasn't a trace of guilt, just panic and fear.

"I hope not. But I will just tell you this. If you know anything, it is in your best interests to tell me. If anything happens to the child…"

Alfonse slammed his hands onto the metal table. "I didn't do anything to no kid!" he shouted.

Vivian sat calmly, not moving an inch even when he slammed his fists the table.

"You give me one of those lie tests if you don't believe me," he said. "I didn't do nothin."

Vivian gave an inward sigh. Alfonse Rodriguez had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Whether his girlfriend did or not was another matter.

Vivian called the guard and then turned back to Alfonse. "I'll be in touch if I need anything else," she said.

Alfonse looked relieved. "Aight," he said. "But if Rosa tries to pin anything on me you gotta know she's lyin. If she did it she did it on her own, not cause I told her to."

Vivian nodded as the guard came in, cuffed Alfonse and led him back to his cell. Vivian grabbed the copies of the e-mails and tucked them back into her folder. It seemed that as far as Alfonse Rodriguez went, the lead went directly to a dead end.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So, Rosa. You like using the Internet?"

Danny Taylor leaned forward. He put his elbows on the table leaned toward the girl sitting across from him.

Rosa Sanchez was nineteen, but could have passed for thirty. A hard life had etched itself into her face, into the wrinkles, the dark circles under her eyes. She had a three year old son, the father was the jailed Alfonse Rodriguez. She stared coolly at Danny. The only sign that she was at all nervous was the slight shaking of her hand as checked her pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"No smoking in this building," Danny said and the girl put the cigarettes back into her pocket and scowled at him.

"You didn't answer my question, Rosa. I said, do you like using the Internet?"

The girls nostrils flared as she took a deep breath. "Yeah. What's it to ya? What am I doing here?"

The girl was bluffing, She was acting cool and collected, but she was bluffing. Danny could see it plain as day. There was fear deep in her eyes, fear and guilt. But guilt about what? Just sending threats or for carrying them out?

Danny opened the folder in front of him and pulled out copies of the e-mails that had been sent from Alfonse Rodriguez's e-mail address. The techs had gone over Rosa's computer and found that the e-mail's had come from her computer. There was a whole range of them, from plain old name calling to out and out threats.

Danny knew the e-mails were written and sent by Rosa Sanchez. What he needed to know was whether Rodriguez had made her do it or whether she was acting on her own and whether or not they had anything to do with Natalie Roenstein's disappearance.

Danny slid the pile of e-mails across the table at Rosa. With a sneer she looked down at them. "What are these?"

"Don't you recognize them, Rosa?" Danny asked.

She looked down at the top one and her aloof look faltered. She licked her lips nervously and stared down at the paper.

"I didn't hear you, Rosa. Do you recognize them?"

Rosa's eyes flickered to Danny's face and she took a deep breath. She looked like she was weighing her options.

"I wouldn't lie to me if I were you," Danny said, his voice hard.

"Yeah, I recognize them," Rosa said, her voice flat. She looked at Danny and suddenly her face fell and tears welled up in her eyes. "I didn't mean nothin by 'em though!" she said.

Danny recognized the change in tactics. She was going to play the innocent card. "Oh you didn't mean anything, huh? What part didn't you mean? The part when you called the Judge a stupid bitch or the part where you told her she should burn in hell? Or maybe it was the part where you said that you would make her pay. Which part didn't you mean, Rosa, because they seem pretty serious to me."

Rosa shook her head, tears pouring down, leaving dark mascara lines down her cheeks. "It was just a joke, you know. I wanted to scare her that was it. I didn't mean it," she said.

Nodding his head slowly Danny said, "So kidnapping the Judge's daughter wasn't the way you were going to pay her back?"

Rosa was so shocked she forgot to keep crying. She stared at Danny, dumbfounded. "What you talking about?"

"Judge Roenstein's daughter was kidnapped from Disneyland last night."

"And you think I did it?" she gasped. "I didn't have nothin to do with no kidnapping! Besides, Disneyland is in California and I'm in New York."

"Right, but don't you have a sister in Monrovia? That's not far from Anaheim," Danny stated.

Rosa's eyes widened. "Maria doesn't have nothin to do with anything! Don't you bother her!"

"Are you willing to take a lie detector test for us, make sure you didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping?"

"Yeah, I'll take the test, cause I didn't do nothin."

"And your boyfriend Alfonse didn't set you up to kidnap the kid?"

"Alfonse? No way. He doesn't know anything. He doesn't even know about the e-mails. I did it, cause I was pissed. My son don't have a father no more cause of that Judge. But I wouldn't do nothin to her, or her kid."

Just then Danny's cell phone rang. "Hello," he said.

"Danny it's Viv. I just got through with Rodriguez. He doesn't have anything to do with it. How about the girlfriend? Did you get anything?"

"No," Danny said. "Nothing."

"Great," Vivian said sarcastically. "Well, hold her on the threats and let the PD deal with her."

"Right," Danny said. "Later." He clipped the phone to his belt and stood up.

"The detectives will be right with you to charge you for e-mailing those threats," Danny said.

Rosa glowered at him, but Danny ignored her. He had more important things to worry about. Like finding out who _really_ was responsible for Natalie Roenstein's kidnapping.

((Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you!!))


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